Last year I gifted a convoy c8 to my father for his birthday and he was pretty impressed with the light. A couple of days ago I showed my father the trj12 I won in this old lumens giveaway and he was blown away by the amount of light it was producing. So now he wants a light that will be equal or brighter than my trj12. I think a mix of flood and throw would be best for what he is going to use this light for. I would also prefer a light that has enough mass to stay on high for while without getting too hot to hold. I would be able to do some simple modding like changing drivers and emitters. I have not attempted chip stacking yet but I would be willing to try.
If I'm reading that thread correctly, it was modded so that each emitter gets 2.5A. It might actually put out a true 4500 lumens. I don't think you can beat that for $60 if you expect it to have enough mass to stay on high without getting too hot to handle. The best I can think of is a SRK that's modded with RMM's FET driver and Noctigons to put out around 5000 lumens. That was with a 3 emitter SRK. You might be able to get more out of it with more emitters.
Fandyfire 9 XM-L light..
De-dome some of the emitter. Copper braid springs, use good batteries..
Pretty hard to beat that. My mod here involved a bit more time and upgrades, but it shows some the potential..
Thanks for the suggestions. He will probably be using the light on high for 10 minutes max if that helps. I would also be willing to build a host up if there is one that will be close to my budget with all the parts included.
If I go with a skyray king which one is everyone ordering at the moment for modding?
From what I’ve read, you might want to look into the Supfire M6, soon to be sold by RMM.
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my suggestion of awesome lights under $60 would be 9 LEDs XM-L T6 ($50-$55 ), TR-J18 ( $45) Securitying SRK ($34)
of course the M6…
my vote would be TR-J18 as it’s cheap these days and easy to do resistor mod to achieve $4000 lumens, perfect weight/long and not too mention it won’t burn your hand if you hold it more than 15 mins 
Would you be so kind as to provide the link for the TR-J18 resistor mod?
ive been hijacked lol
I know of one for $72 bucks that simply blows away anything stock I have ever tried and I have owned lots of them, but I don’t want to say which one yet because I just received it as a sample for a review. There was a slight problem and they want me to wait to do the full review. For a teaser I’ll let you know that it’s over 7,000 lumens stock. If you want to know send me a PM and I’ll give you the link.
You would honestly think that this light was already modded.
$72 for about $7000 lumens? 
I’m pretty sure it’s not going to be a single LED light 
Pretty safe bet, LOL.
For 7000 lumens I can add another $12 to my budget
I see a groupbuy for 60
OH HOLY CRAP!!!
Only problem Forward voltage: 35 V
Nine batteries in series. The battery tube would only be a little over half a meter long. You can even get a tactical sheath so you can carry it all the time.
A multiple battery holder or a boost driver never did anybody any harm.
Where can I find a tr-j18 for $45?
Is $49.99 close enough?